i am so greatful for the cooling down we have experienced for the past couple days. i have had to waste my entire afternoon sitting in my apartment or feeling trapped in a coffee shop for fear of melting way too many times this summer, and i realize that each summer brings me a more difficult time.
i think alot of people are unsure on why people with MS often become crabby or reclusive in the summer, so i thought i would take just a minute to walk my readers through the heat process.
MS involves a stripping of the insulation around our nerves (the process is actually called demylenation). so here i am with holes and tears in my insulation and when the weather is cool enough, its not really something i ever think about.
have you ever had a stereo where the speakers are attached to the receiver by wires that are hooked into the back of the receiver? well i did, and as time went on, the plastic around the actual wires started to peel off to the point that i could no longer cut extra naked wire of the bottom to help with the sound. now, the stereo did not become useless, but the sound did become unreliable, especially in warmer weather-
electricity does not conduct as well in warmer temperatures because the molecules become more agitated, moving faster and faster. when ever anything speeds up too much, things go awry, right. i mean, try picking up and putting down your moprning cup of coffee at a set speed over and over. now go faster and faster and you will notice the coffee starting to spill, leaving the cup, landing anywhere it is not supposed to be (meaning in your mouth). in our brains, this agitation causes the electricity to move across the synapses from neuron to neuron, allowing us to be generated forward in what we are doing. in MS, with the heat causing quicker jumping, there will often be misfiring where there is myelin damage(i wonder if it should actually be called mislanding), hence people with ms often have a hard time in the heat with all this cross-firing and landing.
ive learned that by keeping the back of neck cool, i do alot better, so if you ever see me in a sweater after ive complained the room was too warm and asking for the air to be on higher, know that its only cool enough for my naked brain connections when its too cold for m y arms...
Song of the day:
8 comments:
Wow, Molly, this is quite an education for me. I only wish you could be talking about the subject theoretically, rather than as a result of your own experience. My thoughts are with you.
hi john! thanks for stopping by. just know, you should take my science with a grain of thought, as i know i misused the word synapsis, and also, my own understanding of this illness is in constant change.
glad for your interest
i mean a grain of salt
oops
Molly, the science of the disease is interesting, but naturally my real interest is more in how it's all affecting you physically and emotionally. I just love that you're writing about it so well, and putting your voice and your face to what can easily otherwise be a theoretical disease for most of us.
you know, john, i tend to think of this writing as wanting to let people use the information in their own lives. i think i will have to ponder the fact that we dont even know eachother really, and yet you think in terms of ms and me...
and the first thing i know is that i am glad you like my writing
That's an interesting insight, Molly, and it brings up an important principle, which is this: while we as writers have any number of agendas and goals when we write something, the receivers, meaning readers, invariably decode what we write in very different ways, through the lenses of their own experiences. The same material can be decoded in very different ways by different readers, and often in ways utterly different than the writer intended.
Okay, that got too theoretical and bogged down. It actually goes like this. A wise writing mentor once told me that I should remember that the story I tell isn't necessarily the only story a reader picks up. Often, it merely prompts a reader to recall their own related stories, which then get mingled in with your original story/anecdote/account.
That's the real gist of what went on here, I think. And it's one of the chief ways in which writing and reading can be both magical and more complicated than they first appear.
oh, and theres that word intention again...
it was nice meeting you, glad to have a face to the name
I enjoyed meeting you too.
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